_________________"I dreamt last night I saw youA single spark explosion negotiating with the deadBy the bright lights in some ICU on my chest you put your headand said "There you are.There you are.There's my heart..."

I really, really like GamesRadar, but their review is rather poor. They don't actually say why they disliked the game; they spend time explaining where the game comes from and a tiny bit about the mechanics, but don't go into why it's not fun to them at all.

Hardcore Gamer, even with some factual inaccuracies, actually goes into why.

As for IGN, well... they DID give the HD Collection quite the high score.

_________________Beyond the Joystick - game reviews, plot recaps, and morehttp://beyond-the-joystick.blogspot.com - Also on Tumblr!

IGN didn't like it very much, and apparently the story is poorly told.

_________________"I dreamt last night I saw youA single spark explosion negotiating with the deadBy the bright lights in some ICU on my chest you put your headand said "There you are.There you are.There's my heart..."

It's better than IGN's review for Downpour, which didn't explain their opinion at all, but it's still not the best review; they don't say why the cutscenes are poor or why the found-note structure inhibits the story, and frankly I don't feel like an experience bar should be a mark against a game.

_________________Beyond the Joystick - game reviews, plot recaps, and morehttp://beyond-the-joystick.blogspot.com - Also on Tumblr!

At least notes give context and story to a game if the game itself is sorely lacking in both.

*coughRESIDENTEVIL6cough*

_________________"I dreamt last night I saw youA single spark explosion negotiating with the deadBy the bright lights in some ICU on my chest you put your headand said "There you are.There you are.There's my heart..."

There's a difference between an epistolary format and something telling instead of showing. The Datalog in Final Fantasy XIII, for instance, is a bad form of storytelling; the interactivity shows some, but everything else is explained through text--and it could easily be shown instead of told.

It works better to flesh out things rather than outright tell them, and I think that's something Silent Hill is good at.

_________________Beyond the Joystick - game reviews, plot recaps, and morehttp://beyond-the-joystick.blogspot.com - Also on Tumblr!